St. Bonaventure University’s theater program will present One Act Festival 7 at Garret Theater on campus, Oct. 25 through 28, reviving a One Act Festival series dating back to 2003.

“We’d been producing one-acts every other year, but we’ve had so many new projects lately — ‘Decade of Wandering,’ ‘Hamlet,’ ‘An Iliad’ — that we haven’t done any one-acts since 2013. So it was time to bring them back,” said Dr. Ed. Simone, theater program director.

One Act Festival 7 is indeed “bringing them back,” said Simone. Six of the seven short plays, all comedies, are audience favorites from some of the last six festivals.

“These are plays that students, faculty and people in the community talked about long after the plays were produced,” said Simone. “You know: ‘Oh, I really liked that one. That one was really funny…’ So we thought it would be fun to revive some of those hits.”

The six comedies in encore productions are “Poof!” by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage; “Universal Language” and “The Philadelphia” by David Ives, a Helen Hayes and Drama Desk Award winner; “Waterbabies” by playwright, actor and screenwriter Adam LaFevre; “The Ferry” by playwright, novelist and blogger Ryan Hill; and “An Ongoing Examination of the True Meaning of Life” by playwright and blogger S. W. Senek.

New to the roster of comedies is “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread,” also by David Ives. This five-minute mini-musical puts composer Philip Glass in a bakery in search of bread. Instead, he finds an ex-girlfriend, and, perhaps, the meaning of life.

For this mini-musical, Dr. Les Sabina, chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, and music lecturer Laura Peterson, along with music major Michelle Onofrio created a synthesizer score using the music from the original Primary Stages production. The cast sings to this accompaniment in the style of a Philip Glass opera — but a very silly five-minute opera.

Twelve actors make up the cast of One Act Festival 7, and several are new to SBU Theater. Newcomers include Rachel Hoag, Lily Rannacher, Abraham Troska and Abbey Schandelmeier. Veterans from previous SBU Theater productions include theater majors Breanna Grayson, Taylor Morton-Lewis, Jeancarlos Aponte, Taquan Percy Brown, and Carolyn Haswell; theater minor Bryce Spadafora; as well as Matthew Tyssee and Bridget Hoag. Stage managing One Act Festival 7 are theater majors Lizz Freeman and, in her first production with SBU Theater, Caroline Orfano.

The production is designed by theater program designer and technical director Becky Misenheimer, associate professor of theater. “These plays are so quirky and funny, we decided to do a quirky set to go with them,” said Misenheimer. The set includes angled walls and a turntable used to shift from one play to the next. “The whole evening literally spins,” she said.

The production is also staged in three-quarter round, with the audience on three sides. SBU Theater audiences found this type of staging exciting in previous productions including “The Walls,” “Twelfth Night” and One Act Festival 6, said Simone.

“It’s going to be a fast, fun evening,” he said. “We really want our audiences to have a great time and just laugh.”

One Act Festival 7 will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, Oct. 25 through Oct. 28, in SBU’s Garret Theater, located in the east wing of Devereux Hall. The show runs about 90 minutes. An audience talk-back follows the Friday night performance.

Reserved tickets are $8 for the public, $6 for senior citizens, students, and SBU employees. For tickets, call the box office at (716) 375-2494. Free student rush seats (one ticket per valid student ID, in-person only) are made available to students from any school one hour before showtime.

Audiences are advised that One Act Festival 7 contains adult language and subjects.

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, we believe in the goodness of every person and in the ability of every person to do extraordinary things. St. Bonaventure University cultivates graduates who are confident and creative communicators, collaborative leaders and team members, and innovative problem solvers who are respectful of themselves, others, and the diverse world around them. Named the #5 best college value in the North by U.S. News and World Report, we are establishing pathways to internships, graduate schools and careers in the context of our renowned liberal arts tradition.